After decades without a Toyota Crown on the American market, one returned last year as a lifted, cladded sedan replacing the Avalon Buick-fighter. It’s surprisingly not bad, and it must be doing well enough on the sales charts because Toyota just released a new Crown-like teaser on its Instagram account, pictured above.
Hold on, we’ve seen this one before. While everyone’s expecting a new Camry to arrive at any time, this teaser photo zooms way in on the Toyota Crown Estate, although “Estate” might be a bit of a misnomer. With its jacked-up ride height and plastic cladding, this is intended to be a crossover, but one that seems to adopt a more Mazda CX-50-like form.
Hey, even though Toyota’s in bed with Subaru on the GR86 and BRZ twins, everyone’s coming for the Outback’s lunch money, so it’s only cromulent for one of the world’s largest automakers to grab a slice of the pie.
Details on the Toyota Crown Estate are sparse, but here’s what we do know. With a total length of 194.1 inches and a height of 63.78 inches, we’re looking at a vehicle longer and lower to the ground than the current Subaru Outback. Based on size alone, it’s safe to expect the Crown Estate to sit atop the Venza in the two-row Toyota crossover hierarchy. Plus, it should satiate first-generation Venza owners who feel like the current Venza isn’t quite big enough. How’s that for two birds with one stone?
As for powertrains, we know little about what the Toyota Crown Estate is powered by, but Toyota is touting series-parallel hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains for various markets. The Crown Estate in the teaser shot appears to be a standard hybrid that customers won’t have to plug into the mains, so it feels safe to expect either Toyota’s 2.5-liter naturally-aspirated four-cylinder hybrid powertrain or its 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder HybridMAX powertrain on tap. Who knows? The Crown we already get offers both, so a Taco Bell moment is still on the table. Possibilities and all that.
Whatever’s under the hood, don’t be surprised if the Toyota Crown Estate makes a public appearance at November’s Los Angeles Auto Show. Toyota claims a scheduled market launch date sometime in 2024, and we’re running out of auto shows left in the year.
(Photo credits: Toyota)
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I…like it. I didn’t expect to based on the Crown sedan.
How sad is this that after the Crown has been 1 year on the market and I’ve still never seen one in the wild, and had quite honestly forgotten about it.
That’s probably why they decided to just do the sensible thing and sell the crossover version.
I just saw my first one this weekend. It was kinda puffy, but I didn’t hate it.
I’ve seen a fair amount of them for how long they’ve been on sale. I’d probably notice more if they didn’t blend in so well with so many other new vehicle styles.
They seem like a nice car, but compared to the Hybrid Camry, I don’t think I’d pay what Toyota is asking to move ‘up’ to the Crown.
They still make the Venza?!?
I’ve seen a couple of them around. But it’s clear they’re not selling in high volumes.
Toyota’s really nudging the Crown into a subbrand, the sedan isn’t doing all that great at the moment, but this at ~$50k will make a lot more sense than a Crown Limited sedan to most buyers.
Not the first time Toyota’s really gone heavy on the utility vehicles at once (in 2001 they had five utility vehicles, people thought that was a lot – a simpler time). But seems like something’s gotta give.
Going by Crown sedan pricing, this would start about where the Venza tops out and overlap with the Highlander Hybrid (non-Grand). Maybe this is indeed the end of the Venza, which is the Harrier in Japan – and the Harrier used to be the Lexus RX, before Lexus was in Japan, so it’ll be redundant there. And the Highlander, which is the Kluger in some markets, is the Crown Kluger in China.
Perhaps this also makes room for the Venza and/or Highlander to get replaced by an EV, since they are rolling EVs under new nameplates and not existing ones. Or they roll EVs out under Crown nameplate in short order (Toyota Crossover EV concept correlating to Crown Sport). Or, maybe more of a reach – if they plan/expect to scale back ICE Lexus models in favor of EVs first, and people that want a nicer non-EV Toyota are directed to the Crown lineup?
I just wish they had the balls to make it,I dont know,a sort of E-class/5-series competitor,what the hell is the point of this thing.
The front has a little bit of Lexus ugliness going on. Aside from that, it is “car”.
“Aside from that, it is “car”.”
Not even that much. It’s an even blander “crossover”.
i feel like i don’t really give a crap,sorry Toyota. If it was a true estate,yes,not just another damn crossover.
My thoughts exactly. Also, return it to RWD. A FWD Crown still just makes me sad.
Did Toyota just make a Nissan Rogue?
If it was a manual and was actually an estate, it would be the sexiest
The Crown Estate is approximately the length of a Camry and is supposedly lower than an Outback which is promising but it looks really chunky in photos. Hopefully it actually sits lower on his haunches and has smaller wheels than in these photos. Else, it’s merely a slightly smaller CX-9.
So just about as long as the Highlander, but not as tall? Highlander is 68.1 inches tall.
Talk about saturating the “crossover” market. Corolla Cross – RAV4 – Venza – Highlander – Grand Highlander. Plus the 4Runner, Sequoia, and I guess Land Cruiser at some point.
If that isn’t a crossover, then I’m the Conte di Mistretta
It’s 2023. All cars are crossovers and all restaurants are Taco Bell.
I like my wagons a little more understated and utilitarian, but let’s face the facts here. Wagons are doing what they have to do to survive. We’ll never see anything quite like the Roadmaster or any other wagon that can carry 4×8 sheets of plywood again. When I stand next to my parent’s Kia Niro however, it’s hard not to think that it is more of a station wagon than an SUV. It has a large and useable cargo area with a low entry height for passengers, and besides a little cladding it doesn’t even try to pretend that it can go off-road.
I sat in the Crown and it was dead ass more comfortable than every Lexus I test drove with my mother. It was actually more comfortable than every car we test drove. The fuel economy of the base engine is great too!
It’s funny. I did the same, and was overwhelmed with disappointment. Power was meh in the non-full scoot version, and I thought for the price there were far too many hard plastics and it wasn’t super comfy.
Crown was the top of my list for a replacement of my Clarity, and now doesn’t even rank.
The price seemed totally fine to me considering there’s no markup and/or you’d probably even get a bit of a discount. Maybe you didn’t sit in the same seats as me. The ones I liked were the base XLE cloth seats. Toyota makes terrible leather seats IMO
I saw “estate” and got excited for a wagon. This is just another crossover. Doesn’t Toyota have enough at this point? There’s the CorollaCross, RAV-4, Venza, Highlander, Grand Highlander, 4 Runner, Sequoia, and there’s about to be a new Land Cruiser.
I could maybe see it working if they’re planning on killing the Venza and subbing this in because they can charge more for it and it’s also a hybrid…or if they’re going to try to phase out the regular Highlander to force more people into the Grand Highlander/this since they’re more expensive, but if it’s just another addition to their lineup as is I don’t really see where it slots.
I’ve actually seen a couple of the regular Crown sedans in person and I actually don’t mind them. They’re a little goofy looking (kind of like a sedan that swallowed an air hose) but they’re not bad. They’re definitely unique and stand out in a sea of gray blobs. It’s definitely a car you notice.
I just think it’s a bit of a shame that it costs so much friggin money. To get the hybrid max powertrain it’s a low to mid 50s proposition and at that point I’d rather have a Lexus….and even in the slow/CVT equipped trim you’re still looking at the mid 40s as soon as you add the necessary options which is a hard sell for anyone who appreciates driving.
I guess I’m just not sure who any of the Crown products are for, if that makes sense. In a vacuum I think they’re interesting and different….and much like most folks here I like interesting and different. But once you compare them to other things at their price point they kind of fall apart unless you specifically want a traditional hybrid and don’t mind that the base one is a ponderous.
They need to catch up to VW group’s quantity of crossovers.
I saw my first IRL Crown this weekend, and I don’t get how it’s supposed to be “lifted”. It was driving past another standard sedan, and they were pretty comparable.
I would like to see a good old fashioned wagon. A cargo area built for loading and carrying cargo. Where the loading door is as large as the cargo area.
We got a Flex a few years ago. Had to laugh when the DMV called it an SUV. It’s just a freakin’ wagon!
But it’s got those fancy folds in it.
The DMV and insurance have my Kona N classified as a Sport Wagon for some reason….
“length of 194.1 inches […] height of 63.78 inches.”
Nice units, thanks.
– Rest of the World.
Try this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/everything-metric-auto-un/hknjpaididhfgeocegbacehlnkofjoni
This is specifically about the US version. Don’t worry, versions for other markets will not be measured in freedom units.
Inches x 25.4 = millimeters. So that suspiciously accurate ‘63.78 inches’ is actually 1620 mm.
In an age where virtually everyone carries a supercomputer in their pocket, unit conversions aren’t terribly onerous anymore.
It honestly just seems idiotic to write an article for a global audience using units relevant in one country…